Almost-Flourless Chocolate Cake

Almost-Flourless Chocolate Cake

I recently discovered Orangette‘s fabulous food blog, and her recipe for an almost-flourless chocolate cake just sucked me in and wouldn’t let go. All it’s made of is chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs and a touch of flour. Seriously. How could it be bad? It seemed like it would be rustic and rich, like something you would order from a tiny, homey café while on a trip to Paris. You’d drink your steaming café au lait and swirl forkfuls of the chocolaty goodness in freshly whipped cream, thinking about how this cake would be the first thing you’d mention when describing the trip to your friends. Yeah, this is what food does to me. And it really was that good. My photo, unfortunately, is not that good. I didn’t care about the picture. I just wanted to eat cake.

Recipe from Orangette, adapted from Je veux du chocolat! by Trish Deseine

7 ounces best-quality dark chocolate
7 ounces unsalted European-style butter (the high-butterfat kind), cut into ½-inch cubes
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour

“Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Line the base of the pan with parchment, and butter the parchment too.

Finely chop the chocolate (a serrated bread knife does an outstanding job of this) and melt it gently with the butter in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring regularly to combine. Add the sugar to the chocolate-butter mixture, stirring well, and set aside to cool for a few moments. Then add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each addition, and then add the flour. The batter should be smooth, dark, and utterly gorgeous.

Pour batter into the buttered cake pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the center of the cake looks set and the top is shiny and a bit crackly-looking. (I usually set the timer for 20 minutes initially, and then I check the cake every two minutes thereafter until it’s done. At 20 minutes, it’s usually quite jiggly in the center. You’ll know it’s done when it jiggles only slightly, if at all.) Let the cake cool in its pan on a rack for 10 minutes; then carefully turn the cake out of the pan and revert it, so that the crackly side is facing upward. Allow to cool completely. The cake will deflate slightly as it cools.

Serve in wedges at room temperature with a loose dollop of ever-so-slightly sweetened whipped cream.”

g-ma’s note: If you’re lazy like me, skip the whole turning-it-upside-down part and just serve it out of the dish. I used a porcelain 9-inch pie dish and it worked out just dandy. Even though I left it on a cooling rack, keeping it in the plate continued the cooking process after taking it out of the oven, but I liked the kinda-chewy edges that this process created. Enjoy!

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